Chinese vase found in shoebox sells for £14m

An 18th Century Chinese vase, left for decades in a shoebox in France, has sold for 16.2m euros (£14.2m).

The vase was auctioned at Sotheby’s in Paris on Tuesday and sold for more than 20 times its estimated guide price, 500,000 to 700,000 euros.

It’s the highest price reached for a single item ever sold by Sotheby’s in France.

The vase formed part of a family inheritance and was recently discovered in an attic.

Sotheby’s Asian arts expert, Olivier Valmier, said the seller “took the train, then the metro and walked on foot through the doors of Sotheby’s and into my office with the vase in a shoebox protected by newspaper.

“When she put the box on my desk and we opened it, we were all stunned by the beauty of the piece.

“This is a major work of art,” Valmier continued. “It is as if we had just discovered a Caravaggio.”